OK, I also just read this snippet from an old interview with O Sensei. He also said:
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(interviewer): How many techniques are there in Aikido?

O Sensei: There are about 3,000 basic techniques, and each one of them has 16 variations . . . so there are many thousands. Depending on the situation, you create new ones.
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So I'm assuming that each isn't learned individually, especially based on the last sentence.
andrew